The Farmers’ Union of Wales has written to congratulate the newly appointed UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and set out the immediate and longer term concerns for Welsh agriculture and rural areas.

FUW President Glyn Roberts wrote to Liz Truss on behalf of the FUW congratulating her on a successful campaign and on having been appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The UK as a whole is facing turbulent times and while the next few years will be challenging for the UK government to navigate, the FUW believes that the future of the food and farming industry and those family farms which are at its heart must play a central role in tackling immediate and longer term challenges for the country.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has responded to Peter Fox’s draft Food (Wales) Bill, in principle supporting the intentions and objectives of the Bill.

Member of the Senedd for Monmouth Peter Fox MS was successful in a ballot for the right for a non-Government Senedd Member to bring forward a proposal for a new law, and has until 17 December 2022 to finalise and introduce his proposed Food Bill.

In the FUW response, it was highlighted how the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing Russian war on Ukraine has demonstrated how sensitive food supply chains and agricultural commodities can be to global events, serving as a stark reminder of the dangers of relying on imports of food and raw materials.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has given a cautious welcome to a Welsh Government decision to scale back plans to plant prime agricultural land in the Tywi valley.

The Welsh Government announced in February this year that it intended to plant 94 hectares (232 acres) of farmland it had purchased at Brownhill, near Llangadog in Carmarthenshire - prompting outrage from the local community and across Wales.

The suspicion is that the Government thought branding the project as a ‘covid memorial woodland’ would diffuse objections to the loss of valuable farmland at a time when we have seen lots of land in the area purchased by outside buyers for tree planting.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has responded to the Welsh Government's consultation on ‘Healthy Food Environment - Exploring proposals to make the food environment in Wales healthier’, stressing that farmers are proud of the high quality food they produce.

Responding to the consultation, the Union stressed that it is broadly supportive of the themes identified in the consultation to encourage healthier shopping baskets, healthier eating out of homes and healthier local food environments, therefore making ‘the healthy choice the easy choice’.

FUW members are proud of the high quality Welsh farm products they produce for Wales’ local population and further afield. The FUW wants to see continued promotion of the high environmental and animal welfare standards farmers all have to and want to adhere to alongside the high nutritional value of Welsh produce within a healthy, balanced and sustainably produced food environment.